Winchester Circuit Race p1/2 - we won.
New-ish local race, way out past Sacramento. Hilly circuit course around a fancy neighborhood. Hadn't done it before, but a teammate was going and I didn't have anything better to do (even though it was a ~3 hour drive each way..)
Field of 30 dropped a bunch of guys pretty early, narrowed down to 20 or so. At the end of the 3rd (of 6) laps, a little move went up the finish hill, my teammate went with it along with a few others, and I played anchor behind (which I regret now, only in the sense of not making the front group, even though the was a perfect course for him and he's stronger than me anyway).
A group of six or so bridged up to my chase group of four, and we didn't really go hard for a few laps - everyone was tired. I animated it a bit on the last lap, trying to drop people. There was a sprinter in the group that has beat me, but his form hasn't been great and I wasn't sure how his climbing was. After a big downhill leading to an uphill where Sprinter was on the front, I attacked hard and got a big gap and held it to the line for 8th. Was surprised when I looked back a few times and the group behind me were barely visible. It was a one mile attack, a lot longer than my usual solo efforts that last one minute at most.
Teammate "man-handled" the front group, as one rider put it, and rode away from them for the win. Love it.
Driving back out there tomorrow for a crit!